Healthy Vanilla Cupcakes (Lower Sugar, Dye-Free Frosting)

These Healthy Cupcakes are light, fluffy, and moist. They also happen to have less sugar (and butter) than most conventional cupcakes, both in the cake and in the frosting, but they are still sweet enough to be a treat. As an added bonus, the light pink frosting is made with mashed and strained raspberries, so they are even free from artificial colorings!

Healthy Vanilla Cupcakes

If you have a kiddo, chances are you’ve been to birthday parties with giant cupcakes with heaping mounds of frosting. I am absolutely not opposed to desserts—and I never restrict treats when we do go to parties—but I do believe that it’s possible to serve sweets with better nutritional profiles that still taste good. These Healthy Cupcakes are a perfect example.

Healthy Cupcakes for Kids

A batch of these lower sugar cupcakes would be a great addition to a birthday party, holiday party, dinner with other families, or a special occasion. They’re even a good option for a first birthday cupcake. I’ve served these to kids of all ages, as well as adults, and no one is ever the wiser as far as the sugar content goes!

Ingredients in Healthy Cupcakes

Here’s a look at the ingredients you’ll need to make this cupcake recipe.

Add the dry ingredients and gently fold together with a spatula. (photo 4)

Spoon into paper liners, filling each cup about halfway. (photo 5)

Bake and remove from pan and let cool. (photo 6)

Tips for Baking Cupcakes with the Kids

My girls love to help me in the kitchen and with cupcakes, here’s what we do.

I let them put the paper liners into the tin.

I measure the ingredients and let them add them to the bowl.

I help them hold and use the electric mixer.

Keep in mind that you’ll want to pull the butter and cream cheese out of the fridge at least 1-2 hours before you want to start baking so they have time to come to soften up at room temperature. They should be soft to the touch so they whip up easily.

Healthy Vanilla Cupcakes with Lower Sugar

The recipe calls for 1/3 cup sugar, which is less than conventional recipes. You can go as low as 1/4 cup and still get good results, though I prefer 1/3 cup. (My two year old eats them either way, if that’s helpful to know!) And as you are mixing the frosting, stop to taste it for sweetness. Remember that it will be eaten with the sweeter cake base, but adjust the sweetener according to your preference.

How can I be sure that my cupcakes are light and moist, not dense?

When you mix in the dry ingredients, be gentle and fold them in using a spatula until just combined. Stirring vigorously could cause the gluten in the flour to toughen up, which you don’t want.

The other key is to keep an eye on them as they bake. I set my timer for the lower end of the time range and check the centers with a cake tester. If it comes out cleanly, and the edges are lightly golden brown and the tops are firm to the touch, pull them from the oven. You’ll want to transfer them to a wire rack to cool soon after you pull them from the oven to ensure that they stop baking. (Over baked cupcakes may be dense.)

Store-Bought Cupcake Tip

This is a little random, but can come in handy: For the times that you purchase cupcakes, know that you can always request that they use less frosting than usual to cut down on sweetness! There will still be plenty of frosting and the kids won’t ever know the difference.

How to Make Dye-Free Frosting

To make this frosting, you’ll need cream cheese, vanilla extract, honey, and raspberries. You mash the berries and strain them to release the bright red juice, then beat it into the cream cheese for pale pink frosting. I put the frosting into a zip top plastic bag, cut one end off, and use that to pipe on swirls. So pretty!

You can also leave out the raspberries and keep the frosting white to simplify things. Or consider using natural food coloring. All are find options!

Can I make these healthy cupcakes ahead of time?

They are best on the day they are made but you can bake them the day before. Simply let them cool completely and store in an airtight container at room temperature. Frost before serving.

Tips for Making the Best Healthy Cupcakes

When you mix in the dry ingredients, be gentle and fold them in using a spatula until just combined.

To avoid over baking, set your timer for the lower end of the time range and check the centers with a cake tester. If it comes out cleanly, and the edges are lightly golden brown and the tops are firm to the touch, pull them from the oven.

Transfer the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool soon after you pull them from the oven to ensure that they stop baking.

Let the butter and cream cheese soften at room temperature for 1-2 hours to ensure they are soft enough to whip up.

To make these gluten-free, use cup for cup gluten-flour.

I’d love to hear your feedback if you make these cupcakes so please comment below!

Instructions

Cream the butter and the sugar with a handheld mixer until light and fluffy, about 30 seconds.

Add in the sour cream, milk, vanilla, and eggs and beat to combine.

Add the baking powder, baking soda, salt, and flour. Stir with a spatula gently just to combine.

Spoon into paper liners, filling each cup about halfway. (Each will take about 2 1/2 tablespoons of batter.

Bake for 18-20 minutes or until just golden brown and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

Remove from pan and let cool completely on a wire rack.

Notes

Raspberry Frosting

Mash 1/2 cup raspberries in a small bowl with a fork. Spoon into a fine mesh colander and press and scrape through the wire to release the juices into a small bowl. Discard the seeds. You should have about 1/4 cup smooth raspberry puree. Set aside.

Spread or pipe (I use a zip top plastic bag with one corner cut off as a piping bag) onto cupcakes. Garnish with a raspberry on each if desired.

TIPS

When you mix in the dry ingredients, be gentle and fold them in using a spatula until just combined.
To avoid over baking, set your timer for the lower end of the time range and check the centers with a cake tester. If it comes out cleanly, and the edges are lightly golden brown and the tops are firm to the touch, pull them from the oven.
Transfer the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool soon after you pull them from the oven to ensure that they stop baking.
Let the butter and cream cheese soften at room temperature for 1-2 hours to ensure they are soft enough to whip up.
You can make these with 1/4 cup sugar if you want to go with less.

To make these gluten-free, use cup for cup gluten-flour.To make these ahead, let cool completely and store overnight in an airtight container.

Reader Interactions

Comments

My toddler and I have just made these. We did them without frosting and substituted the sour cream for Greek yogurt. We did the lower sugar version. They are absolutely delicious!!!!! We had them warm from the oven. I did need to cook them for an extra 15mins x

These turned out just OK. They ended up tasting eggy which didn’t appeal to me. The icing was runny so I added powdered sugar to thicken it up which worked but I had to add a lot which defeated the purpose of my low sugar mission.

I just made these cupcakes for my daughter to take along to daycare for her birthday – thank you. The cakes themselves are lovely, but I’ve also run into issues with the icing – as previous commenters have mentioned, it has the consistency of yoghurt. It seemed fine up until I added the maple syrup & vanilla, was very runny from there (I notice there’s no mention of adding the vanilla in the frosting recipe, but I doubt this would be enough liquid to be responsible for the loose consistency!). Cupcakes still taste great – thanks again.

I made these last night without the frosting and they were absolutely awesome. They came out real moist and I love how they aren’t overwhelming sweet. I added two chopped granny smith apples and all my sugar-addict co-workers loved them. I’m not diabetic but normally when I eat a lot of sugar or normal cake batter I get a real bad headache, with this recipe I didn’t!Also used greek yogurt instead of sour cream and it worked great.

I’m a novice at all this and the cupcakes themselves came out great, but the icing twice was too runny. It’s still in the fridge in case anyone can respond quite soon!!

Reading the instructions again, I may have only mixed a bit before I added the fruit puree, could that be what made it go wrong? Even though I mixed with handheld mixer for like 5 minutes after that, it only ever got slightly thicker, or should I mix even longer?

Or could it be I didn’t use exact right proportions of the soft cheese to sour cream?

Or is soft cheese not the same as cream cheese? (I’m in england but used Philadelphia brand which I guess is the same in the US?)

Hi there. If you used more sour cream than the cream cheese (Philadelphia brand is right) that would make it runnier. If you have more cream cheese, I’d add that in or you could try beating in some softened butter. I’m sorry you have trouble it I hope they work out!

I made 4 dozen for everyone at my son’s daycare for his 4th birthday. I used the 1/3 cup of sugar and 1 ginormous double yolk egg in each batch. They came out with the perfect amount of sweetness. Also, a bit small which may have to do with slightly less egg? But I prefer them this size for the little ones. Might be a little difficult to decorate as I am attempting pirate faces. In the end, they don’t judge my artistic abilities, thank goodness. Thanks for sharing!

I love hearing that you are making them for your son’s birthday and I hope that the decorating goes well—it sounds like the kids will love them! (The egg might have something to do with it, but my cupcake recipes generally are on the smaller side since I agree with you about portion size for little ones.)

Footer

Images and text copyright Amy Palanjian 2019 (except where noted). Do not repost images or recipes without requesting permission at yummytoddlerfood@gmail.com.
Click here for our privacy policy and here for our terms and conditions.